Smolov Jr. for Bench

Hey guys I am on my last week of Smolov Jr. for bench and I just had a question about maxing out. Do you guys think it would be a good idea to do like a week or 2 of doubles before I max out or no? I seen some people do that and they have been able to go up like 30-50 pounds on their bench in like 6 weeks using this program. Since the body is not really use to doing really heavy weights I was thinking the doubles would really help it out and maybe even mentally. What do you guys think? I am not in a big rush to max out, if waiting two more weeks means an increase of 10 or 15 more pounds, I willing to wait. Also any ideas on how to do them would be helpful too. I maxed out at 200 before I started the program and I am doing the 3 week one.

It's only a 3 week cycle and has much fewer reps/sets than full blown Smolov. I think you'd still be able to keep on keeping on in the rest of your training minus triceps (they'll be fried from the benching).

You can adjust the days of the week you lift also, but it needs to be 4x/week.

I think its a little different than a Sheiko. On a sheiko you hardly ever do 85% etc. On the smolov jr you go to 85% but u add weight each week etc. So I think you are still tuned in to heavy weighs somewhat

What i would do though is probably do one easy week. maybe bench twice that week but just easy stuff like maybe 3 doubles with 75% or soemthing. Strictly as a deload week. (probably not a bad idea to go even a little lighter and do some speed reps like 60% for 3x3 or whatever since after heavy loading u usually lose speed)

I would do that easy week, then do maybe 1-2 weeks where you do lower volume but heavier weights. maybe 2x per week do 2-3 sets of heavier doubles.

When I did my sheiko with a lot of success I did this

3 week sheiko
1 deload week
1 week of doubles/singles
the last week I did an easy workout on Monday then max tested on Friday and had a 40lb gains, lol

so thats sort of a formula there

id do either one or two weeks of maybe doubles or singles. but dont burn out by goign up and straining at 97% etc (unless it feel seasy, lol)

Then on max week id plan to max either on Thur or Fri and id do a moderate workout on about Monday, then just chill until you max

when i did my sheiko, then I did those doubles etc the first couple reps were HARD because I wasnt used to the heavy weight...but it got easier really quick

It's only a 3 week cycle and has much fewer reps/sets than full blown Smolov. I think you'd still be able to keep on keeping on in the rest of your training minus triceps (they'll be fried from the benching).

You can adjust the days of the week you lift also, but it needs to be 4x/week.

I think its a little different than a Sheiko. On a sheiko you hardly ever do 85% etc. On the smolov jr you go to 85% but u add weight each week etc. So I think you are still tuned in to heavy weighs somewhat

What i would do though is probably do one easy week. maybe bench twice that week but just easy stuff like maybe 3 doubles with 75% or soemthing. Strictly as a deload week. (probably not a bad idea to go even a little lighter and do some speed reps like 60% for 3x3 or whatever since after heavy loading u usually lose speed)

I would do that easy week, then do maybe 1-2 weeks where you do lower volume but heavier weights. maybe 2x per week do 2-3 sets of heavier doubles.

When I did my sheiko with a lot of success I did this

3 week sheiko
1 deload week
1 week of doubles/singles
the last week I did an easy workout on Monday then max tested on Friday and had a 40lb gains, lol

so thats sort of a formula there

id do either one or two weeks of maybe doubles or singles. but dont burn out by goign up and straining at 97% etc (unless it feel seasy, lol)

Then on max week id plan to max either on Thur or Fri and id do a moderate workout on about Monday, then just chill until you max

when i did my sheiko, then I did those doubles etc the first couple reps were HARD because I wasnt used to the heavy weight...but it got easier really quick

Thanks John. I was thinking about doing something similar to that. Do a week of deload and do nothing, and then maybe 1 week of 2x of doubles or triples and then I will follow your idea of monday and then max out on friday idea.

For some reason I thought you did smolov John. Those were some nice gains off of Sheiko. I wonder how well smolov will work for bench, its so hard to find anyones results for it. Has anyone done the program or know about results from the program for bench?

in any case, benching 4x per week for 3 week is a form of controlled overtraining (concentrated loading) and basically that deload week afterward will let your body start to recover and then as long as u keep the volume low you will be able ot peak up with some nice numbers

in any case, benching 4x per week for 3 week is a form of controlled overtraining (concentrated loading) and basically that deload week afterward will let your body start to recover and then as long as u keep the volume low you will be able ot peak up with some nice numbers

did u get all your reps on the smolov jr?

Ya so far I have been getting them. I have two days left to go though, they will probably be the hardest ones though. Hopefully be able to pull them off. Ya I meant that not to many people have done smolov junior for bench, the regular one would be crazy hard to do for bench.

Agreed, i did a search last night but couldnt find much information besides some guys journal and what you provided me with.

For 3 weeks? It's pretty class you've gone up 20-30lbs already.

But you mentioned youre at 225? I think you mightve been better off with something more basic but i dunno the full story.

20-30lbs gain in a few weeks is good going man, i'd be happy if i were you

Whats the rest of your routine look like?

I wasn't planning on running it yet but I was away from a gym for like two weeks and only had bench to use so thats why I thought a little extra work on bench wouldn't hurt. I was actually going to run it a little later on.

Originally Posted by John Prophet

you r in America bro....if u want to do hardcore Eastern Euro stuff it means u have to be a groundbreaker yourself. Most people want to do a lift 1x per week and thats all they can imagine.

better yet, go there and ask for "Jack Reape" in the thread title line

like "Jack Reape, how can I peak for a max after a smolov Jr?"

that sort of thing. Tell him u heard he was the guy to ask..either him or someone else will give opinions.

That is where I first saw the smolov article etc and jack has written many great articles about peaking and russian routines etc

Thanks John, you been a lot of help. I will try and check out the dragondoor place. Hope they can help some. I guess I will just take the hit for everyone here at bodybuilding.com and then you guys can ask me how it works.

Will I posted in there. We will see what happens. Doesn't seem very active in there sadly but most of people sound pretty serious about there training. Most of the stuff about smolov was about 5 years old.

I guess I will just take the hit for everyone here at bodybuilding.com and then you guys can ask me how it works.

pretty much what I did with sheiko

the basic pattern on those Russian deals is sort of like this

prep period=high volume, medium or low intensity (%)

comp (peaking) period=low volume, higher intensity

like my sheiko, I did 3 weeks of sheiko prep using the beginner 3x per week routine. Then I deloaded for a week. Then for my "peaking phase" I just did my own thing with heavy doubles and singles for 1 week...heavy, very low volume.

Then on the test week I did an easy workout Monday and had a 40lb bench gain on Friday night, lol

dude, it was freaky. I started sheiko with a 275 paused bench max (had done 290 touch and go months earlier but was stuck using westside for 4 straight months). So all i wanted was to break 300, lol. So I came in to test that night....it was sort of in slow motion like a movie, lol. I think i got 295, pretty easy. Then 305. I said "heck, y not try 315?". So I loaded up the 3 plates per side. Walked across the gym....came back and saw the 315 loaded up and the thought went thru my head "dang, who is benching over here with all that weight?"...then I realized it was me, lol. I got the 315...it was pretty freaky and I was shocked cuz I didnt see that 1 coming.

That was back in late 05. Then I putzed around with bb'ing in 06 and until now. All my numbers went way down. but I just got 315 again weighing 30lbs less than when i got it the first time. This time I was using my OWN ideas involving russian conjugate sequencing. Cool stuff. When I get those ideas 'gelled' a little more I might write an article

another thing I found out. Dont do 2 sheiko back to back, lol. its too stressful because of the high volume. better to do a more straightforward lower volume program in between

I gained 40 on my first sheiko. Then I turned around and ran it again with the new numbers etc and I did a 2 week peaking period with heavy negatives etc. That time thru I only gained about 7lb on my bench although my squat and dead still went up pretty good

i did shiekos. Got 25 lbs on my bench. Lost it all later due to unrelated shoulder problems and couldnt bench tho. for a couple months

I just took a light week then maxed. I got some pretty good chest size gains on shiekos too for a month.

The strength bench program ive seen with the most promise is the mm2k ****. Looks like nearly everyone that touches it is putting on around 30-40lbs atleast.

btw, try posting it in the powerlifting section to see if u can get some more input.

I will try posting in the powerlifting section, good idea, but I don't think I will probably get a much better response in there since so few people have tired the program or actually finished it. You guys got nice gains from shieko, I thought the low intensity would mean less gains. I hope smolov will result in greater gains since its a little higher intensity, where I am going to be almost using my previous PR for 10 sets of 3 on the last day.

like my sheiko, I did 3 weeks of sheiko prep using the beginner 3x per week routine. Then I deloaded for a week. Then for my "peaking phase" I just did my own thing with heavy doubles and singles for 1 week...heavy, very low volume.

Then on the test week I did an easy workout Monday and had a 40lb bench gain on Friday night, lol

dude, it was freaky. I started sheiko with a 275 paused bench max (had done 290 touch and go months earlier but was stuck using westside for 4 straight months). So all i wanted was to break 300, lol. So I came in to test that night....it was sort of in slow motion like a movie, lol. I think i got 295, pretty easy. Then 305. I said "heck, y not try 315?". So I loaded up the 3 plates per side. Walked across the gym....came back and saw the 315 loaded up and the thought went thru my head "dang, who is benching over here with all that weight?"...then I realized it was me, lol. I got the 315...it was pretty freaky and I was shocked cuz I didnt see that 1 coming.

That was back in late 05. Then I putzed around with bb'ing in 06 and until now. All my numbers went way down. but I just got 315 again weighing 30lbs less than when i got it the first time. This time I was using my OWN ideas involving russian conjugate sequencing. Cool stuff. When I get those ideas 'gelled' a little more I might write an article

another thing I found out. Dont do 2 sheiko back to back, lol. its too stressful because of the high volume. better to do a more straightforward lower volume program in between

I gained 40 on my first sheiko. Then I turned around and ran it again with the new numbers etc and I did a 2 week peaking period with heavy negatives etc. That time thru I only gained about 7lb on my bench although my squat and dead still went up pretty good

Thats a pretty cool story, pretty dramatic haha. Hope something like that happens with me. I would be pretty damn happy with 40 pound increase in a month.I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens though. If it works well who knows I could cause a shift to Russian programs.

Originally Posted by johnny87

i just googled it. And seen on two sites, that its 10-20lb increase and 15-25lb increase for the last week.

Ya what I did was 15 pound increase the 2nd week and then 10 more the 3rd week so. All together an increase of 25 pounds. You get it, those sites just list the total weight that you should increase by the third week. I know its kind of confusing.

Thats a pretty cool story, pretty dramatic haha. Hope something like that happens with me. I would be pretty damn happy with 40 pound increase in a month.I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens though. If it works well who knows I could cause a shift to Russian programs.

Ya what I did was 15 pound increase the 2nd week and then 10 more the 3rd week so. All together an increase of 25 pounds. You get it, those sites just list the total weight that you should increase by the third week. I know its kind of confusing.

damn that is confussing. Good catch.

You put on much mass during this program? Shieko wasnt half bad in that aspect for my chest

the Sheiko works by keeping your body in a "long term" state of imbalance. In other words u dont really recover DURING the 3-4 week prep phase. U recover afterwards during a deload week. Perhaps the Russians know how to recover during..not sure, lol.

By keeping u imbalanced for 3-4 weeks, when u finally DO recover u take a big strength bump but u sort of have to know how to harness it with a high int/low vol peaking phase. for instance if you just did a 3-4 week sheiko and then maxed on the last day of it, u might actually go backwards, lol. That would be because at that point you have driven your body into the ground and it needs a deload week to start its recovery

the Sheiko works by keeping your body in a "long term" state of imbalance. In other words u dont really recover DURING the 3-4 week prep phase. U recover afterwards during a deload week. Perhaps the Russians know how to recover during..not sure, lol.

By keeping u imbalanced for 3-4 weeks, when u finally DO recover u take a big strength bump but u sort of have to know how to harness it with a high int/low vol peaking phase. for instance if you just did a 3-4 week sheiko and then maxed on the last day of it, u might actually go backwards, lol. That would be because at that point you have driven your body into the ground and it needs a deload week to start its recovery

I liked the idea of overreaching, in your article. Seems like a smart way to train because by taking some time off from hard training every 3 or 4 weeks you not only let your muscle recover but also allow for your joints and tendons to recover, likely preventing injury. Going all out continuously can likely lead to stalling and injury.